Introduction to Drupal 6.x Classes - January 10th from 9:00AM to 1PM

This survey course is made up of three sessions every Saturday morning for 3 weeks. Each class builds on the previous one so that you can start the month as a newbie, end it a Drupal rock star. The sessions will cover Drupal 6.x, though most of the content is applicable to both Drupal 5.x and 6.x.

Where: Denver Open Media - 700 Kalamath Street, Denver, CO 80204
When: 3 Saturdays from 9AM to 1PM, starting January 10th.
What to bring: Yourself and your laptop. If you don't have a laptop, let me know when you register and a computer can be provided.

Cost (includes all three classes):
Early bird price: * $250 if you register and pay during 2008
Regular bird price * $300 if you register and pay during 2009
Is breakfast served? You betcha. We'll have coffee, bagels and juice.

How do I sign up? Complete the signup form on the bottom of this page. If you wish to pay via credit card, use the Paypal button on the bottom of the page. If you wish to pay via check, mail it in and then let us know.
How many people? To ensure a high quality class and an 8:1 student/teacher ratio, class is limited to 15 people. We expect that every class will be full, so if you are interested you should sign up now. We will update this page as people sign up. There will be at least two teachers giving the classes to help anyone with problems that may arise.

January 10th: "Introduction to Drupal" - (hint: It's not pronounced droo-PAWL)

• Installing Drupal, commonly used jargon and design patterns and “gotchas”
• Publishing Workflow Basics: Content creation, editing, and moderation
• Module Introduction: Using Markdown for easy text formatting
• Successfully interacting with the Drupal community (finding the right modules, getting your bugs fixed)

January 17th: Turn Your Site Up to 11 - the most popular core and contributed modules in Drupal

• Views - Create listings of content without writing code.
• CCK (Content Construction Kit) - Create custom content types and forms to collect whatever data you need (again, no code needed).
• Token / Pathauto - Turns those nasty URLs into user friendly search engine friendly strings.
• Date / Calendar - Build a calendar of events, schedule, or calendar-based archive.
• Imagefield / Imagecache / ImageAPI - Integrate images into your site in powerful, creative ways.
• Panels+Views modules to build powerful landing pages

January 24th: Needs More Cowbell - Drupal for Themers, Developers, and Sysadmins

• Using the powerful PHPTemplate theming engine to alter any and all HTML on a site
• Module development and the Drupal API
• Security for Developers and Sysadmins
• Performance and scalability best practices

Note that while these are the general outlines for the courses, we will tweak the exact content as much as possible so that it is useful to the people who show up to the class. The courses are not a "tutorial" but a "survey" style review of the various things that you can do. Some of the class will be hands-on, but much of it will be based on demonstration and explanation.

Your Fearless Leaders

These classes will be led by a combination of different Growing Venture Solutions team members:
* Greg Knaddison (greggles)
* Ezra Barnett Gildesgame (ezra-g)
* Steve Harley (garbanzito)

Snack time and Recess Time

While class starts at 9:00 you are welcome to show up at 8:00 to get your bagel, coffee, juice, and chat with folks before class (breakfast included in the cost of training). After class the GVS team will be headed to lunch and anyone interested can certainly come along to keep chatting about Drupal or maybe discuss your favorite music fan site. There will be brief breaks throughout the day.

We Want to Give the Training You Need

This is a fairly specific training even though it will be tweaked to fit the students. If your needs are more advanced or specialized in one area of Drupal, please contact us to let us know what kind of training you do want. If you have a group of folks that need training we can come to you. If you are local, be sure to add yourself to our mailing list so you get updates whenever we announce new classes - maybe the next one will be on your topic.

Photo credits: Goes to 11 LOLCATbell